By Debora Iozzi Research associate at the Council on
Hemispheric Affairs

Palm oil production is expanding in the region due
to increased world demand. Its high versatility
and productivity is bringing many Latin American
producers to farm this crop. However, the harmful
impacts of the aggressive plantation expansion on
local communities are often under-acknowledged.
Negative effects include soil depletion, water
pollution, and deforestation.

In order to encourage environmental protection the
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Latin American
works to advance the production of sustainable
palm oil by setting the criteria of evaluation and
certification for sustainable products.

Palm oil, a vegetable oil derived from the fruit
of palm trees, is a typical crop of rainy tropical
lowlands. The trees require deep soil, stable high
temperatures, and continuous moisture throughout
the year. Palm oil originates from West Africa but
it has since spread to Southeast Asia and Latin
America. Highly versatile it can be use to
manufacture a variety of products, from cooking
oil and biofuel to ice cream, ready-to-eat meals,
liquid detergents, soaps, polishes, and lipsticks.

In addition, palm oil has a competitive advantage
over its substitutes. The annual yield is about
3.3 tons per hectare, an amount far greater than
for other vegetable oils. Furthermore, palm oil is
cultivated in regions with low labor costs. Global
production has boosted considerably over the years
and is expected to keep increasing.

Latin America has played a significant role in
this boom. According to the estimate of the United
States Department of Agriculture, Colombia is the
fourth largest world producer of palm oil, with
1,280 million tons per year, Ecuador sixth,
Honduras seventh and Guatemala places in the tenth
positioning.

Although palm oil is a relatively new crop in
Latin America, where farmers traditionally
cultivated other products such as banana, coffee,
and cocoa, it has become an increasingly lucrative
alternative. However, the cultivation and
processing of palm oil on a massive scale leads to
a number of environmental dangers. First, to plant
the seedlings, land is cleared and prepared for
the plantations, a process which includes removing
wild vegetation and previously cultivated crops.
This destroys tropical forests. Such forests are
not only the planet’s lungs, but they contain a
high grade of biological diversity, a doubly
essential resource to preserve.

In addition, burning is a common method to clear
land for the cultivation that generates air
pollution releasing smoke and carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere. In order to prevent deforestation,
protected areas have been identified but controls
are difficult to enforce. Second, the use of
pesticide on plantations and of chemical products
when processing the fruit causes widespread river
contamination, water pollution, and fish
extermination.

Third, palm oil production has supposedly rendered
previously fertile land incapable of growing new
crops due to the invasive root structure of the
monocrop.

On top of environmental dangers, palm oil
production opens the door to human rights abuses.
As plantations that are mainly controlled by big
landowners expand, indigenous farmers are losing
control of their land to the palm oil industry and
entire communities are being displaced. In
Guatemala, indigenous communities, whose right to
territory, food, and clean water have been
negatively impacted by palm oil companies, have
brought their case to the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights.

The Guatemalan government and other agencies, such
as the Inter-American Development Bank and the
World Bank, have promoted palm oil cultivation as
a mean to foster economic and social development
in the country. This monocultural crop was
recently extended into areas inhabited by
indigenous populations without their consultation
or assessment of environmental impacts. As a
consequence, the Pasión River has been polluted
with a pesticide called Malathion, which is
considered harmful to human health by the World
Health Organization.

In addition, the absence of proper legislation on
indigenous land parcels have resulted in an unfair
toxic damage to lands by the big palm oil
companies. The economic model of land exploitation
enacted by the palm oil industry violates not only
the preservation of nature, rivers, flora, and
fauna, but, above all, fundamental human rights,
including the right to life for indigenous people
protected by the American Convention on Human
Rights.

Greater concern is growing in the region about the
damages produced by the palm oil industry. In
April 2015, a state of emergency was declared
after millions of fish and animals were found
asphyxiated by pesticides that leaked in the
Pasión River in Guatemala. According to
Guatemala’s National Council for Protected Areas,
approximately twenty-three species of fish and
twenty bird, mammal, and reptile species were
impacted. The pollution also affected over 20,000
people from 17 communities living along the river
and relying on it for subsistence and revenue.

The United Nations even issued a condemnation of
this ecological disaster that had a great impact
on local families. Many environmental activists
denounced the deterioration of the river due to
the presence of the palm oil industry.

In January, a ground-breaking decision was given
by a special Guatemalan court dealing with
environmental crimes. The palm oil corporation
Reforestadora de Palma de Petén S.A. was convicted
for the extensive damage, destruction or loss of
ecosystems to the extent that peaceful enjoyment
by the inhabitants of the affected territory is
severely diminished in relation to its
contamination of the Pasión River. But the Pasión
River case is just the most eye-catching episode.
Pollution and depletion of natural resources due
to palm oil production is a bourgeoning trend.

In Latin America, palm oil production has the
potential to be an important source of revenue for
people living in poverty.

To this end, the Roundtable on Sustainable
Palm Oil Latin American promotes a palm oil
production plan comprised of legal, economically
viable, environmentally appropriate, and socially
beneficial management. It encourages growers to
adopt its principles and criteria in order to
become suppliers of Certified Sustainable Palm
Oil. Among those principles, there are
environmental responsibilities, including the
conservation of natural resources and
biodiversity, and responsible development of new
plantings.

Strong progress has been made in increasing
sustainable palm oil production. Today 11.37
million tons of certified palm oil is produced,
accounting for 17 per cent of global palm oil. In
Latin America, big suppliers are being pressured
by global companies demand for certified palm oil.
In order to favor small farmers’ participation in
the sustainable production, the Roundtable set up
a fund to support them to obtain the
certification. This certification not only reduces
the negative impact of their activities on
ecosystems, while improving their wellbeing, but
it helps them increase their yields and safeguard
international markets.

There has been a rising global demand for
certified palm oil. To boost consumers’ awareness,
the World Wildlife Fund has created a scorecard to
assess which brands are performing better in being
sustainable. It scored 137 companies. The results
showed, for instance, that among the largest
companies, Walmart, McDonald’s, Krispy Kreme
Doughnuts, Colgate-Palmolive, and Ferrero are
leading the way back. On the contrary, Campbell’s,
Costco, Dunkin’ brands, Tayto, and Brioche
Pasquier are not yet in the starting blocks for
sustainability, it said.